So, Gingerbread has finally dropped below 50% of devices accessing Google Play. Ice Cream Sandwich has almost hit the 30%, and after six months, Jelly Bean (4.1 and 4.2) almost hit the 10%. Google's page listing these numbers is like a trainwreck in slowmotion.

I'm a developer and have developed for many (mobile) platforms, and I can tell you Android is my favorite to program for. The fragmentation problem is very much exaggerated, it's hardly worse than on iOS.

It doesn't matter if only a small percentage of users are on iOS 4, you still have to be backwards compatible. So you have the same problems on iOS.

Backwards compatibility for Android 1 was a pain in the ass though. But since Android 2 it's easy to handle. And everyone programs for Android 2.2 or higher anyway now.

So the way I see it:

- Android developers are fine with Android fragmentation.
- Average Android users are fine with Android fragmentation (don't even know what an OS is, don't care about updates).
- Advanced Android users that do care about updates can get a Nexus device.

It seems the only people whining about it are non-Android users/developers.